'One of the best I've seen him do' - Fergal O'Brien and Crambo counting down the days to Cheltenham after sparkling workout

Fergal O'Brien believes Stayers' Hurdle hope Crambo is peaking at the perfect time for the Cheltenham Festival after impressing in his latest piece of work this week.

O'Brien was talking to the Racing Post for an exclusive interview in which he discusses his quest to keep getting bigger and bigger, just in order to survive, and his search for a first Cheltenham Festival winner having been, in his words, "robbed a couple of times" in the past.

The trainer has a couple of live chances to put that right, not least Dysart Enos in the Mares' Novices' Hurdle, but Crambo is the horse who has him particularly excited.

Fergal O'Brien: "I'd say he's right in the mix, and if only they could stop the ferries coming over from Ireland, I think he'd definitely be favourite"Credit: Edward Whitaker

"I just love Crambo because he's everything you want in a racehorse," he said. "We're very lucky to have him. Eve [Nicholls] looks after him and rides him and she loves him, which is all he wants. He just wants someone to love him. So he's very, very straightforward and I think he's in a good place at the moment."

Crambo, who won the EBF Final at Sandown a few days before last year's Cheltenham Festival, has since blossomed into a top-class staying hurdler and became a Grade 1 winner when beating Paisley Park in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot.

He is a best-priced 6-1 to follow up in the Stayers' Hurdle, behind only the Gordon Elliott pair of Teahupoo and Irish Point in the market.

"He had a fair old battle with Paisley Park at Ascot before Christmas, so I'm glad the owners were happy not to go for the Cleeve Hurdle, and now everything's going really well for him," added O'Brien.

"His latest piece of work was one of the best I've seen him do, he's been away a couple of times and now he's starting to step up. I think he must have a calendar in his stable and he's counting down the days to the festival.

"I'd say he's right in the mix, and if only they could stop the ferries coming over from Ireland, I think he'd definitely be favourite."

Read more from Fergal O'Brien in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday. Click here to sign up.

Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle (3.30 Cheltenham, Thursday, March 14)

Paddy Power: 3 Teahupoo, 7-2 Irish Point, 11-2 Crambo, 7 Noble Yeats, 10 Flooring Porter, Monkfish, Sir Gerhard, 14 Paisley Park, 16 bar

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